526 



Mr. Delille, who have employed themselves so 

 usefully on the toxiques of the torrid zone, with 

 curare enfeebled by being transported through 

 damp conntries. Scarcely a fowl is eaten on 

 the banks of the Qroonoko, which has not been 

 killed with a poisoned arrow. The missionaries 

 pretend, that the flesh of animals is never so 

 good, as when these means are employed. Fa- 

 ther Zea, who accompanied us, though ill of a 

 tertian fever, caused every morning the live 

 fowl allotted for our repast, to be brought to his 

 hammock together with an arrow. Notwith- 

 standing his habitual state of weakness, he 

 would not confide this operation, to which he 

 attached great importance, to any other person. 

 Large birds, a guan (pava de monte) for in- 

 stance, or a curassoa (alector), when wounded 

 in the thigh, perish in two or three minutes ; 

 but it is often ten or twelve before a pig or a 

 pecari expires. M. Bonpland found, that the 

 same poison, bought in different villages, varied 

 much. We had procured at the river of Ama- 

 zons some real toxique of the Ticuna Indi- 

 ans, which was weaker than all the varieties 

 of the curare of the Oroonoko. It would be 

 useless to tranquillize travellers respecting the 

 apprehensions, which they often testify at their 

 arrival in the missions, on learning that the 

 fowls, monkeys, guanas, and even the fish which 

 they eat, have been killed with poisoned arrows. 



